A very happy German team secured their participation in the World league for the seventh time

Riesa, Germany, September 19, 2008 - Germany booked a return to the FIVB World League after completing the double over Venezuela with a 3-0 (25-15, 25-23, 25-12) win in Riesa, Germany on Saturday in the second and final round of qualifiers for the 2010 edition of the premier event for men’s Volleyball.

Having beaten Venezuela 3-0 on Friday, the team coached by Raúl Lozano also won the second match in straight sets to confirm their World League participation for the seventh time having previously featured in 1992-1994 and 2001-2003. The World League will be in its 21st edition in 2010. An 8th-place finish in 1993 is the best result for Germany.

On Saturday, Germany continued where they left off on Friday with another dominant display with Jochen Schöps (12), Marcus Bohme (10) and Björn Andrae (9) leading the way on the scoring front while Venezuela captain Luis Diaz did his best to keep his side in the game by top scoring in the game with 13 points.

“For us, more important than the results is to have reached the 2010 World League,” Lozano said. “This summer we wanted to qualify for the World Championships as well as play a good European Championship and European League. We did this and have had a good summer. For Germany it is very important to be back in the group of top teams and have matches on a high level before the World Championships. In the World League it will not be that important to win but to have matches which help us to develop. For that reason I would be glad to have opponents like Brazil, Russia or Poland.”

Germany captain Björn Andrae: “At the beginning of the summer we made some goals and one of them was that after the qualification for the World Championships we wanted to qualify for the World League. For that reason I am very satisfied that we played two matches at such a high level against Venezuela even though the summer was long. We are looking forward to the biggest Volleyball event in the tournament calendar which will be an optimal preparation for the World Championships.”

Venezuela head coach Jose Gutierrez: “We knew that it would be very hard because we just had two weeks preparation. Our team is very young and now needs to rebuild after many matches. I congratulate the German team and wish them good luck for the 2010 World League.“

Venezuela captain Luis Diaz: “Today we played better than on Friday even though we lost. In the first and second set we had a good level over all in service and reception. Now we have to prepare for the next season and concentrate over all for the World Championships.”

The inaugural World League Qualification Tournament of the 2010 edition began in August with four challengers—Iran, Egypt, Germany and Mexico—that were chosen by their confederations (via direct nomination or qualification tournament). Germany beat Mexico in Berlin in August and Egypt overcame Iran earlier this month in the First Round for a chance to play against the bottom two teams from the 2009 World League: No. 15 Japan and No. 16 Venezuela.